After much cajoling and numerous requests . . . well OK, one from Martin
Encouraging @sheilmcn to start a mooc agony aunt column/blog. Please help me make her do it
— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) April 19, 2013
I’ve decided to start a new, possibly weekly, feature for all of you out there who are grabbling with the numerous challenges of MOOCs. Whether you’re an instructor or student, this could the place you’ve been looking for to get some words of wisdom based on my vast experience MOOCs (cough, cough).
The questions (and answers) have started flowing already on twitter.
@ostephens @gconole @mhawksey Don’t worry size doesn’t matter – don’t be intimidated by Americans going on about how big they are
— Sheila MacNeill (@sheilmcn) April 19, 2013
And in a more considered reply to Grainne’s question
@sheilmcn @mhawksey how do you keep motivated and on track in a MOOC?
— Grainne Conole (@gconole) April 19, 2013
Remember “M” doesn’t stand for “magic” it stands for “massive”. So on the instructor side of things, be prepared for a massive amount of extra (unpaid) hours reformatting and structuring your course. All content and activities have to be MOOC-ified and will only work on a MOOC enabled platform, other online systems just can’t cope with all the new and exciting MOOC pedagogical approaches you’ll be using. Then, when the course is running remember that if you have an introductory forum for students to “share where we are all from and why we’re here” you may feel the inclination to read them all and that will take a massive amount of your (again unpaid) time. So be strong, keep smiling and keep with the programme. By the end of week 2 most of your learners will have realised that they have far more pressing things to do and so the contributions will have dropped off to a number that is manageable for you to at least have a cursory glance over whilst your having a nice cup of tea and biscuit.
From a student point of view, remember “M” doesn’t stand for “magic” is stands for “massive”. It will take as much time and effort as one of those old fashioned distance, or even those that take place in real time in a real place (like a University) courses, to complete. But just remember you don’t actually have to participate, and can drop out at any time and go and do all that other stuff that you need to, and have a nice cup of tea.
Grainne, Owen – hope that helps and gives everyone else an idea of the scope and scale and contribution this feature could bring to the MOOC-ology or is it MOOC-oshpere?
As the comments/tweets flow in, I’m am also hoping to enlist the support and guidance of my former colleague Christine Sinclair (part of the #edcmooc team) but more importantly former agony aunt writer for the Jackie magazine.
That’s the last time I bring you tablet back from Stornoway….
‘Jackie’got me through my formative years, where have you all been since then??? Could have used this advice some time back….
Hi Paige – yes I think we’ve all been at a loss since the demise of Jackie:-) not sure why I hadn’t thought of this earlier
“MOOC-ology or is it MOOC-oshpere?”
We prefer MOOCscape. Looking forward to it!
MOOCscape it is then Robert
Sheila